The present invention relates to a power-actuated chair-type elevating apparatus that employs simple linkage to elevate and forward incline a seat thereof and thereby protects a user sitting on the seat from dangerously tilting backward.
A patient or an old man having weak legs usually needs an attendant to help him to move from a sickbed to a sofa, a wheelchair, or a bathroom. A most common way for the attendant to do so is to carry the patient or the old man with two arms. The attendant would feel laborious and the patient or the old man would,feel uncomfortable when the patient or the old man is carried to a considerably distant place.
There is a manually operated elevating apparatus developed for assisting in moving the patient or the old man from one place to another place. The apparatus includes a seat that is manually elevated or lowered to facilitate convenient moving of the patient or the old man onto or off the seat. In using the manually operated elevating apparatus, the attendant has to control the up and down of the seat while keeps watching the patient or the old man, lest he should fall off the seat. Even with great care, there are times the attendant fails to well protect the patient or the old man against falling while manipulates the elevating apparatus at the same time.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a power-actuated chair-type elevating apparatus that uses electric power to control elevating and lowering of a seat thereof, so that the apparatus can be more conveniently operated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a power-actuated chair-type elevating apparatus that uses electric power to elevate and lower a seat thereof, and the seat gradually inclines forward to raise a rear end thereof when it is elevated, so that a user sit thereon also inclines forward to safely lean against a table of the apparatus without the risk of tilting rearward to fall off the seat.
To achieve the above and other objects, the power-actuated chair-type elevating apparatus of the present invention mainly includes a slidable base having an upright lower tube extended from a top thereof, a table having a downward extended upper tube axially movably covering the lower tube, an elevating mechanism mounted in the upper and lower tubes to elevate or lower the table relative to the base, and a seat pivotally supported on a pair of bent tubes and three links. The bent tubes are pivotally connected at an end to a lower near rear end of the seat and fixedly connected at another end to the upper tube. The three links are coaxially and pivotally connected at a first end to one another, and pivotally connected at a second end to a lower near front end of the seat, the base, and the upper tube, respectively. When the elevating mechanism operates to elevate the table and the upper tube downward extended from the table, the seat is also elevated and forward inclined due to an effect of the three links, enabling the user sit thereon to safely lean against the table without the risk of falling off the seat.